11 June, 2016

New intelligence bill gives FBI more secret surveillance power

A Senate
bill published late Monday night includes a new provision that would
give the FBI more power to issue secret demands, known as national
security letters, to technology, internet, communications, and
banking companies for their customers’ information.

The
provision, tucked into the Senate Intelligence Authorization Act,
would explicitly authorize the FBI to obtain “electronic
communication transactional records” for individuals or entities —
though it doesn’t define what that means. The bill was passed by
the Senate Intelligence Committee last week.

In the past,
the FBI has considered “electronic communication transactional
records” to be a broad category of information — including
everything from browsing history, email header information, records
of online purchases, IP addresses of contacts, and more.